a couple of grandkids . . .

. . . sketched from photos since they live so far away.

Since I would like to learn to draw people better, maybe I should start with all the photos our kids send us. It seems much harder to capture a likeness of those we love, so the challenge would be good practice.

Quen loves wearing button-down shirts, REAL ties knotted loosely, and cool hats. Don't know where he gets it but he has very distinct ideas regarding fashion, but it certainly fits his love of musical instruments. Maybe he'll be a cool jazz musician someday.

Jayna has had long hair "forever" --- she was born with a full head of it. But she wanted to give it away to Locks of Love, like her mommy did last year. So Carrie cut it off for her --- just in time to start gymnastics! Probably much easier without hair in her face.

tulips from a friend

Hearing the funny trials of our tulip thefts, my friend Ginger surprised me with these tulips from her yard Sunday. I keep them where Bill and I can enjoy them every day but well out of reach of my "Ferdinand the Bull" cat, Bear. Like Ferdinand, he loves to smell flowers --- but at 22 lbs. with that enormous Maine Coon tail, he is clumsy.

Bill's tulips

Unlike the tiny "wild" tulips in our yard, I planted these especially for Bill --- he loves red tulips!

Four of them came up this year . . . . true to form, our "tulip thief" stole one --- this person only takes one at a time over several days.

So last week, I cut the remaining tulips and brought them inside so BILL could enjoy them instead of the thief. And later the same day, a wind averaging around 60 MPH came up --- it would have torn them apart!

* the rest of the story:
Sometime this morning, Bearcat jumped on the table (where he is not allowed) to sniff the tulips (he loves flowers!), knocking the vase over and breaking them apart! I just had to laugh.

up and downs of life

Ceilidh insisted on tackling the front steps by herself after the first few times, running from me before I can pick her up. But she is still wary of coming down them.

Sort of like us. In life, it's much more exciting to go forward when we are feeling "up". Harder to function on the down side.

sketchercise from last week

This time I painted these grape hyacinths with gouache w/o pencil first. The background was was done before leaving the house, with a thin wash.


This and the sketches below were done after taking Ceilidh on one of our small daily "walkabouts" --- she is slowly getting the hang of walking on a lead. I'm looking forward to longer walks with her but until her third shot we are avoiding other dog's areas.





And this is what happens to the 7 wild tulips in our yard every year. We may dig them up this time and place them closer to the building.

("wild" in that we didn't plant them -- they are placed very irregularly in the side yard --- they have unusually short stems of only a couple of inches.)

75 day challenge is finished!

Not a very exciting sketch for the final sketch, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to this art journal pictured above and using watercolor!

I am very glad I took the challenge from Brenda Swenson (to do one ink sketch a day for 75 days with no pencil under-drawing first). I have noticed a "lightening up" in my attitude -- I'm not as concerned as I used to be about the finished product looking exactly as seen in my mind. Now it's more drawing for the joy of it.

busy Ceilidh

I find it very hard to even do quick gesture sketches of a puppy that is NEVER still and NEVER returns to the same pose twice. These were sketched from photos taken the first 2 weeks of her coming to live with us.

I'm also having a hard time getting just the right black mixture to use for her. Here, I've tried various blends from ultramarine, burnt umber, lunar blue, or burnt sienna.